We are committed to quality chiropractic care that focuses on the overall health of every patient through postural integrity, including rehabilitation, continuing patient education, ergonomics training, nutritional support, and exercise advice. We are further committed to the philosophy that we serve and exist for the better health of our community.
(OPENING SUMMER 2010)

Sunday, July 18, 2010

Have you ever wondered what keeps some married couples together for decades? Surely, mutual love, respect and shared spiritual beliefs are important to a lasting relationship, but possibly the most important factor is communication. Without communication neither person can learn about the other nor can they share their hopes and dreams for the future.

If communication is not the most important factor, then it is at least the most popular. Browse through any large bookstore and you will see titles promising to help improve your relationships by teaching you and your spouse to better communicate with each other. Regardless of whether you are from Mars and your spouse is from Venus or vice versa, if the two of you don’t communicate well, your life and your relationship are going to be challenging. If you do not believe me, try going a few days without communicating with your spouse. Can you think of all the disorder this could cause in your life? Who is going to pick up the kids? What time will dinner be ready? What ballgame does little Johnny have this week and where? Did anyone call and leave an important phone message? And these are just a few of the potential challenges you may incur.

The success or failure of any sports team is largely due to its ability to communicate. In baseball for example, teams have developed their own type of sign language for communicating the managers’ instructions to the players. All that flailing of the third base coach’s arms and brushing the bill of his cap is his way of communicating to the batter to take the pitch, lay down a bunt or swing away. While that is going on, the pitcher and the catcher on the other team are communicating in their own sign language deciding which pitch to throw. If the batter misses the signal from the third base coach and takes the pitch when he was supposed to bunt, he could cost his team the game. On the other team, if the pitcher mis-communicates with the catcher, the results could be equally costly.

Imagine if the quarterback for your favorite football team were to give his teammates the silent treatment in the huddle. How would any of the players know where to lineup, which routes to run, which direction to block, who the ball was going to go to or even what the snap count would be? This lack of communication would obviously reduce the chances of this team winning or even performing at its best. Obviously, communication is important in our relationships with others, both on the field and off. But there is more, communication is also an important factor in the quality of our internal relationships as well.

For your body to reach optimal physical and mental harmony (what some refer to as “health”), you must have good communication throughout your nerve system. For your internal environment to function properly, your brain and body need to “talk” to each other via signals sent over the nerves in your body. Much like a failure to communicate with a friend or your spouse can cause disorder in your relationship, failure to communicate the signals between your brain and body leads to disorder in your body. Interference to the communication lines of the nerve system leads to this “failure to communicate.” One such type of interference is vertebral subluxation. Vertebral subluxation is the name given to a spinal bone that is misaligned and interfering with the nerve system. Chiropractors assist your body in correcting vertebral subluxations, thus restoring the communication between your brain and your body. While the chiropractor cannot help you with your communication with others, he or she can improve the communication that takes place within you.

Monday, July 5, 2010

DNA, three little letters that no one ever heard of a century ago yet today almost everyone has heard of. Although most people do not know that DNA stands for deoxyribonucleic acid we do know that it is the blueprint for the human body. Within the genes of a fertilized egg are the plans for everything from the color of your eyes to the maximum amount of time you have on the earth. Scientists have even identified many of these genes and determined what their responsibility is in various functions within the body. Their desire is to alter these genes and to repair damaged ones that may lead to medical conditions. Genetic altering and cloning are just part of this entire concept that sounds very much like science fiction. But then who would have thought 75 years ago that we would be talking to each other on phones without wires!

The discovery of the genetic code was truly a great event, worthy of the Nobel Prize that it gained for its discovers. But in all the hoopla and attention paid to the genetic code we have lost sight of the fact that it is just a blueprint. First, a blueprint does not create itself. It is the result of thoughts of an intelligent person. The architect or the designer makes the blueprint. The blueprint may say your eyes are going to be blue but it did not design the thousand parts that make up the eye anymore than the blueprint grew the wood or made the bricks that will go into the building. That too took intelligent actions on the part of brick makers.

The major area where the genome discovers went wrong was to assume that the DNA makes the body, that it creates new cells to fashion the organs and tissues of the human organism. That would be like setting down the set of blueprints at the work site, dumping the bricks, cement, steel and wood next to it and saying “go ahead blueprint, construct this building.”

Blueprints are great, even necessary to the success of the building and perpetuation of any structure. (If a building was just thrown together without a design it probably would not last very long). DNA is necessary for the design and perpetuation of the human organism, but it is only a blueprint. The architect and the builder of the human body is a principle placed within all living organisms by the Creator of the universe. In chiropractic, we call that principle the innate intelligence of the body. It even repairs and makes changes to the blueprint. It then takes the blueprint and creates the organs and system of the body. It will even make changes when the blueprint is not quite what it should be. The innate intelligence can compensate for weaknesses in our DNA. For example, just because you have a genetic tendency toward a condition like diabetes does not mean you will necessarily have the disease. The innate intelligence of the body can overcome certain genetic predispositions. It can do it a lot better if it is free to express itself. That is where the chiropractor comes in.

The innate intelligence uses the nerve system to cause function, adapt the body and compensate for genetic weaknesses. If there is an interference in the nerve system due to a vertebra being subluxated (misaligned in such a way that it interferes with the nerve system), the body just cannot adapt and compensate as well. Your DNA is important. But remember a dead body has cells all with DNA and it does that body no good. Only the life-giving, life-enhancing innate intelligence of the body can direct the DNA to benefit you, your life and that of your family.